Dissertation Submitted to Mzumbe University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Business Administration in Corporate Management (MBA-CM) of Mzumbe University.
The formulation and implementation of Code of Conduct and Ethics in the Banking Sector including the Bank of Tanzania have emerged as one of the significant reform strategies to improve employees’ ethical behaviour. The Banking Sector in particular has experienced deterioration of ethical values and standards where unethical conduct such as theft both physical and electronic, disclosing of confidential information, borrowing and indebtedness and misuse of internet facilities have persisted over time.
This study was about the implementation of the Code of Conduct and Ethics in the Banking Sector while focusing on the impact of ethics training and the potency of the code on employees’ ethical behaviour. The BoT was used as case study where two directorates were purposively selected. The two directorates had the population (N) of 143 employees. Therefore a total of 68 (48%) respondents were drawn randomly and non-randomly. This included 59 respondents drawn randomly from non-management staff while 9 respondents were purposively drawn from the management staff. The main tools of data collection were questionnaires for non- management staff, interview for management staff and documentary review.
The findings from the study affirm the conceptual framework constructed. The analysis shows that Ethics Training and the Potency of the Code had significant impact on the employees’ ethical behavior by 30.7%. In addition it was also noted that there were many challenges in the implementation of the code but the common ones include poor implementation mechanisms (48%) and lack of awareness on the code (36%) of the respondents.
The study came up with two major recommendations. First, the Integrity and Ethics Committee of the Bank should be strengthened and perform the duties of Ethics Training Committee which does not exist in the Bank. Second, the mechanisms to enforce compliance should equally involve positive rewards for compliance and penalties for non-compliance.